Stand Tall on the Four Pillars
by I.C. Weener
Summary: More like grovel in despair under the Four Horsemen.


" _Hi."_

\- Lucille Liliant, Gundam X

" _Corneria, the fourth planet of the Lylat system. The evil Andross turned this once thriving system into a wasteland of near extinction. General Pepper of the Cornerian army was successful in exiling this maniacal scientist to the barren, deserted planet Venom. Five years later, General Pepper noticed strange activity coming from Venom. James McCloud, Pigma Dengar, and Peppy Hare of the Star Fox team were sent to investigate. Upon their arrival, Pigma betrayed the team and James and Peppy were captured by Andross. Peppy barely escaped Venom and returned home to tell James' son Fox about his father's fate. A few years have passed. Andross has again invaded the Lylat system. General Pepper has turned to a new Star Fox team headed by Fox McCloud to save Corneria and free the Lylat system once again."_

\- Panzer Dragoon Zwei

* * *

Link crept through Vah Ruta's shallows with his shield raised and his sword held cautiously at his side. The sanctum was empty and lifeless, nothing like the bright and peaceful place Mipha had been looking after for the past months. All he found as he moved through the Beast's creaking gears was Waterblight Ganon's corpse, half-sunken in the water.

Something splashed in the darkness behind him. He spun around to see a red blur holding a bright blue staff charging toward him. He instinctively raised his shield and stopped the attacker in the middle of her downward slash.

Link was horrified to see his opponent up close.

It was Mipha. Her Lightscale Trident was covered in the same ancient glow as Waterblight Ganon's spear. Her eyes were hidden under the shade of her fins, while her teeth were drawn back into a psychotic grin like shark fangs. The Waterblight's eye pulsated in her gills, pumping streams of Malice through her heart.

"Mipha, what are you doing?!" Link shouted.

The Zora Champion sent him backwards with a powerful stroke from her flipper and lunged again. The edge of the Lightscale Trident cut through his Champion tunic and left a narrow scrape across his chest.

"Stop it, Mipha!" Link continued to plead, keeping his shield up and crouching in retreat. "This doesn't make any sense!"

"Stop calling me by that filthy girl's name!" she finally screamed.

She raised the Lightscale Trident over her head and stabbed straight downward. Link held the Master Sword lengthwise to catch the trident's prongs before they had a chance to sink into his chest. Kneeling in the water, overwhelmed by Mipha's sudden increased strength, he could finally see up into her luminescent blue eyes.

"Who are you?" Link gasped in terror.

Mipha pulled her trident away. She paddled a few feet backwards, allowing Link to rise back to his feet.

"I'm the one who's destined to send Zora's Domain to oblivion," she said in a quiet but scornful voice. "I'm the one who's been waiting for your precious healer to unseal Vah Ruta. I'm the Zora Champion of 10,000 years ago. My name is _Ingrayne_."

"Zora Champion?" Link gasped. "You can't mean the other Blights… they're all…"

Mipha gave him a slow, dark nod.

"Javona, the Thunderblight. Balat, the Windblight. Darbaro, the Fireblight."

She rested her palm over the pulsating blue orb merged with her heart.

"Princess Ingrayne, the Waterblight. We sacrificed everything to save your kingdom the last time the Calamity struck, and how do you repay us? You cast out the Sheikah who mentored us as heretics. You try to seal our noble Divine Beasts away as if they're as corrupt as Ganon himself. You fear the Champions and erase their legacy, all because the powers they used to save you surpass your comprehension."

Mipha swept her trident to her side and lowered her head. She hid her eyes again as she boiled in contempt.

"The Zoras were treated like savages because of me. Half of my people died in the drought after the war, just because the rest of the kingdom feared I was a witch princess. They hated my mother and father for having me and refused to offer us aid. I doubt they mention that part in the Zora monuments. These heartless cravens who call themselves my descendants adapted the Hylian version of history over the centuries to keep their fraudulent peace. Javona and the others fared even worse than me."

Mipha peered toward Link, showing him the watery rage that filled her eyes.

"The world betrayed us, so we became Malicespawn to punish all of you. Your whole realm will be damned and forgotten, just like we were."

Link dropped the Hylian shield at his left side. He tossed the Master Sword into the water at his right. Painfully stepping forward, he staggered into Mipha and threw his arms around her. He whispered regretfully into her ear.

"It's okay, Mipha. None of this is your fault."

The Zora Champion dropped her trident. She began to shiver as two different forces vied for control of her body. She lifted her head to reveal the tears streaming from her golden eyes.

"Link… run…" she whimpered. "I'm not strong enough to hold her back. She already set Ruta to fire. You have to get away from here."

"I'm not leaving you," Link said, gritting his teeth in anguish.

Mipha chuckled under her breath. Her eyes turned blue as her heart pulsed faster.

"You've already lost her, foolish knight. Her life was extinguished when I took her husk as my own. Vah Ruta listens to my call now."

"Then you'll have to kill me too!" Link squeezed his eyes shut and pulled Mipha against his chest.

"Li-Link! Don't do this!" Mipha said in the tone of her frightened, kinder self. "You'll wind up like me! You'll be trapped in this monster forever!"

"But I'll be with you," he said, swallowing back his own tears.

Ingrayne sighed and closed her blue eyes. She tenderly brushed her claws down the back of Link's head as she thought.

" _Hmm._ A fair offering. Are you really willing to join us, Hylian?" she asked with a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Whatever happened to you, I'm sorry," Link murmured into her shoulder. "I'll do anything for Mipha's sake."

A few feet away, the Waterblight's oozing black remains dissolved into tar in the shallows.

"Then let's put your courage to the test," Ingrayne said softly.

The Blight churned into nothingness, turning the water cloudy black. The liquefied Malice slowly rose up into a wave and cast a long shadow over Link and Mipha. Link lowered his head and held the Zora princess close, waiting for death to strike him. Mipha or Ingrayne closed her eyes and cradled him in return.

The wave descended, consuming them both.

* * *

 _Author's note: Her name is supposed to be a combination of "stingray" and "Igraine."_


End file.
